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    Excel Solver Tutorial

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    Mark German
    This document provides a step-by-step tutorial for using Excel Solver to optimize a product mix problem. It outlines the 6 essential steps to define an optimization model in Excel: 1) organize problem data, 2) choose cells for decision variables, 3) create the objective function formula, 4) create formulas for constraint left-hand sides, 5) specify the model to Solver, and 6) run Solver to find the optimal solution. It then demonstrates setting up a sample product mix problem in Excel by reserving cells for decision variables, formulas for the objective and constraints, and entering available resource amounts.

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    Excel Solver Tutorial

    Uploaded by

    Mark German
    122 views2 pages
    This document provides a step-by-step tutorial for using Excel Solver to optimize a product mix problem. It outlines the 6 essential steps to define an optimization model in Excel: 1) organize problem data, 2) choose cells for decision variables, 3) create the objective function formula, 4) create formulas for constraint left-hand sides, 5) specify the model to Solver, and 6) run Solver to find the optimal solution. It then demonstrates setting up a sample product mix problem in Excel by reserving cells for decision variables, formulas for the objective and constraints, and entering available resource amounts.

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    This document provides a step-by-step tutorial for using Excel Solver to optimize a product mix problem. It outlines the 6 essential steps to define an optimization model in Excel: 1) organize problem data, 2) choose cells for decision variables, 3) create the objective function formula, 4) create formulas for constraint left-hand sides, 5) specify the model to Solver, and 6) run Solver to find the optimal solution. It then demonstrates setting up a sample product mix problem in Excel by reserving cells for decision variables, formulas for the objective and constraints, and entering available resource amounts.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    122 views2 pages

    Excel Solver Tutorial

    Uploaded by

    Mark German
    This document provides a step-by-step tutorial for using Excel Solver to optimize a product mix problem. It outlines the 6 essential steps to define an optimization model in Excel: 1) organize problem data, 2) choose cells for decision variables, 3) create the objective function formula, 4) create formulas for constraint left-hand sides, 5) specify the model to Solver, and 6) run Solver to find the optimal solution. It then demonstrates setting up a sample product mix problem in Excel by reserving cells for decision variables, formulas for the objective and constraints, and entering available resource amounts.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 2

    EXCEL SOLVER TUTORIAL - STEP BY STEP PRODUCT MIX EXAMPLE

    IN EXCEL
    You are here

    Home
    Optimization Tutorial

    Status message
    Congratulations - you are completing this course step. Check the course navigation on the
    left for the next step.

    Essential Steps
    To define an optimization model in Excel you'll follow these essential steps:
    1.
    2.
    3.
    4.
    5.

    Organize the data for your problem in the spreadsheet in a logical manner.
    Choose a spreadsheet cell to hold the value of each decision variable in your model.
    Create a spreadsheet formula in a cell that calculates the objective function for your model.
    Create a formulas in cells to calculate the left hand sides of each constraint.
    Use the dialogs in Excel to tell the Solver about your decision variables, the
    objective, constraints, and desired bounds on constraints and variables.
    6. Run the Solver to find the optimal solution.
    Within this overall structure, you have a great deal of flexibility in how you choose cells to hold your
    model's decision variables and constraints, and which formulas and built-in functions you use. In
    general, your goal should be to create a spreadsheet that communicates its purpose in a clear and
    understandable manner.

    Creating an Excel Worksheet


    Assuming that you have organized the data for the problem in Excel, the next step is to create a
    worksheet where theformulas for the objective function and the constraints are
    calculated. Because decision variables and constraints usually come in logical groups, you'll often
    want to use cell ranges in your spreadsheet to represent them.
    In the worksheet below, we have reserved cells B4, C4, D4 and E4 to represent our decision
    variables X1, X2, X3, and X4representing the number of pallets of each type of panel to produce. The
    Solver will determine the optimal values for these cells. (Click on the worksheet for a full-size
    image.)

    Notice that the profit for each pallet of panels ($450, $1,150, $800 and $400) was entered in cells
    B5, C5, D5 and E5, respectively. This allows us to compute the objective in cell F5 as:
    Formula for cell F5: =B5*B4+C5*C4+D5*D4+E5*E4
    or equivalently,
    Formula for cell F5: =SUMPRODUCT(B5:E5,B4:E4)
    In cells B8:E11, we've entered the amount of resources needed to produce a pallet of each type of
    panel. For example, the value 15 in cell C9 means that 15 hours of pressing is required to produce
    a pallet of Pacific style panels. These numbers come directly from the formulas for the constraints
    shown earlier. With these values in place, we can enter a formula in cell F8 to compute the
    total amount of glue used for any number of pallets produced:
    Formula for cell F8: =SUMPRODUCT(B8:E8,$B$4:$E$4)
    We can copy this formula to cells F9:F11 to compute the total amount of pressing, pine chips, and
    oaks chips used. (The dollar signs in $B$4:$E$4 specify that this cell range stays constant, while
    the cell range B8:E8 becomes B9:E9, B10:E10, and B11:E11 in the copied formulas.) The
    formulas in cells F8:F11 correspond to the left hand side values of the constraints.
    In cells G8:G11, we've entered the available amount of each type of resource (corresponding to
    the right hand side values of the constraints). This allows us to express
    the constraints shown earlier as:
    F8:F11<=G8:G11
    This is equivalent to the four constraints: F8<=G8, F9<=G9, F10<=G10, and F11<=G11. We can
    enter this set of constraints directly in the Solver dialogs along with the non-negativity conditions:
    B4:E4 >= 0

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